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October 17, 2016

"The Story of Kullervo" Deluxe Edition

We now have cover art!

Oct. 20, as of now, marks the publication date of the (long-awaited) deluxe edition of The Story of Kullervo. Why it was not published closer to the original hardback as per usual is beyond me, but here we have it! Looks like Harper Collins is going with a red/orange colour scheme, and an embossment of Tolkien's design.

Aside from the fact the book is quarter-bound, slipcased and superior paper quality, I'm fully expecting the page s/ contents of the book to be the exact same as the standard hardback. Since it's not out yet, and no site list the 'features' of the deluxe, I can't list them off here. The rest of the post is official publisher info, so I'll close here by saying if you want to brush up on related knowledge to this book, check out The Kalevala (as far as I know the only 'readily available edition' is the paperback offered by Oxford.)

Here are the specs:

Pages: 192

Format: Hardback

Author: J. R. R. Tolkien, Edited by Verlyn Flieger

Published Date: 20/10/2016

ISBN: 9780008166724

Detailed Edition: Deluxe Slipcased edition

"Kullervo
son of Kalervo is perhaps the darkest and most tragic of all J.R.R.
Tolkien’s characters. Hapless Kullervo’, as Tolkien called him, is a
luckless orphan boy with supernatural powers and a tragic destiny.

Brought
up in the homestead of the dark magician Untamo, who killed his father,
kidnapped his mother, and who tries three times to kill him when still a
boy, Kullervo is alone save for the love of his twin sister, Wanona,
and guarded by the magical powers of the black dog, Musti. When Kullervo
is sold into slavery he swears revenge on the magician, but he will
learn that even at the point of vengeance there is no escape from the
cruellest of fates.

Tolkien wrote that The Story of Kullervo was
the germ of my attempt to write legends of my own’, and was a major
matter in the legends of the First Age’; his Kullervo was the ancestor
of Trin Turambar, tragic incestuous hero of The Silmarillion. In
addition to being a powerful story in its own right, The Story of
Kullervo published here for the first time with the author’s drafts,
notes and lecture-essays on its source-work, The Kalevala, is a
foundation stone in the structure of Tolkien’s invented world."